"You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you never had the courage to commit."— Oscar Wilde (The Picture of Dorian Gray)

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

2015 Reading Challenge

For the past few years, I've given myself a reading challenge. Every year, I strive to read at least 52 books, but somehow this year, I managed to drastically surpass my goal and read 100+ instead. As such, I wanted to take some time to look back on what I read, who I read, and what I want to incorporate into my reading list next year.

Poetry:
Blood Wallah by Robert Borski
Resonance Dark and Light by Bruce Boston
Eden Underground by Alessandro Manzetti
Argot by Fred Shaw
The Robot Scientist's Daughter by Jeannine Hall Gailey
Wolf: An Epic and Other Poems by Z.M. Wise
At Louche Ends: Poetry for the Damned and the Absinthe-Minded by Maria Alexander
Dark Energies by Ann K. Schwader
The Captain is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship by Charles Bukowski
This Way to the Sugar by Hieu Minh Nguyen
Lighthead by Terrance Hayes
When My Brother Was an Aztec by Natalie Diaz
Transformations by Anne Sexton
Redhead and the Slaughter King by Megan Falley
A Wedding in Hell by Charles Simic
Crossing the Water by Sylvia Plath
Night Picnic: Poems by Charles Simic
White by Charles Simic
The Next Monsters by Julie Doxse
With Deer by Aase Berg
Butcher's Tree by Feng Sun Chen
Scary, No Scary by Zachary Schomburg
Sportuary by Michael A. Arnzen
Vanishing Horizon by Gerry LaFemina
The American Night: The Lost Writings, Vol. 2 by Jim Morrison
Red Sugar by Jan Beatty
White Shroud by Allen Ginsberg
Hard Ground by Tom Waits
On Quiet Nights by Till Lindemann
The Lords and the New Creatures by Jim Morrison
Hemming the Water by Yona Harvey
Notes for the Novice Ventriloquist
The Coronary Garden: Poems by Ann Townsend
Dime Store Erotics by Ann Townsend
The Gaffer by Celeste Gainey
The Underside of the Rainbow by B.E. Burkhead

Novels:

Mr. Malin and the Night by William Pauley III
A Headful of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay
Rage by Richard Bachman
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
Greenshift by Heidi Ruby Miller
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Sour Candy by Kealan Patrick Burke
The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Choke by Chuck Palahniuk
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Jaws by Peter Benchley
Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk
The Brother's Crunk by William Pauley III
Thanks for Ruining My Life by C.V. Hunt
The Martian by Andy Weir
The Death of Bunny Monroe by Nick Cave
The Man on the Ceiling by Steve Rasnic Tem
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin
The Haunted Vagina by Carlton Mellick III
Widow Basquiat: A Love Story by Jennifer Clement
The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson
Call of the Piss Fairy by Lee Allen Howard
The Mourning House by Ronald Malfi
Origin (Wolf Creek #1) by Greg McLean
Memoirs of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Joyland by Stephen King
YOU by Caroline KepnesShort Story Collections/Anthologies:
555 Vol. 1: None So Worthy by Joseph Bouthiette Jr.
The Mermaids Gallows by William Pauley III
Creep House: Horror Stories by Andersen Prunty
The Driver's Guide to Hitting Pedestrians by Andersen Prunty
Goddamn Electric Nights by William Pauley IIIPlays:
Veronica's Room by Ira Levin
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
The Beauty Queen of Leenane and Other Plays by Martin McDonagh
The Lieutenant of Inishmore by Martin McDonagh
The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh
A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare
Antigone by Sophocles

Memoir/Creative Nonfiction/ Nonfiction/Essays:
Crazy: Notes On and Off the Couch by Rob Dobrenski
Not My Father's Son: A Memoir by Alan Cumming
Palpable Magic by Gerry LaFemina
The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Prose Poetry by Gary L. McDowell

Behind the Madness

Stephanie M. Wytovich is an American poet, novelist, and essayist. Her
work has been showcased in numerous anthologies such as Gutted:
Beautiful Horror Stories, Shadows Over Main Street: An Anthology of
Small-Town Lovecraftian Terror, Year's Best Hardcore Horror: Volume 2,
The Best Horror of the Year: Volume 8, as well as many others.

Wytovich
is the Poetry Editor for Raw Dog Screaming Press, an adjunct at Western
Connecticut State University and Point Park University, and a mentor
with Crystal Lake Publishing. She is a member of the Science Fiction
Poetry Association, an active member of the Horror Writers Association,
and a graduate of Seton Hill University’s MFA program for Writing
Popular Fiction. Her Bram Stoker Award-winning poetry collection,
Brothel, earned a home with Raw Dog Screaming Press alongside Hysteria:
A Collection of Madness, Mourning Jewelry, An Exorcism of Angels, and
Sheet Music to My Acoustic Nightmare. Her debut novel, The Eighth, is
published with Dark Regions Press.

Follow Wytovich at http://www.stephaniewytovich.com/ and on twitter @SWytovich​.